A-I-U-E-O

Pronouncing Japanese!

Intro: While this class is primarily about pronouncing Japanese (written in

Roman script)--such as from our RCZ chant books, I’d like to give you just a
brief background on the history of the written language. Also, we will spend
just a bit of time looking at some examples of more subtle pronunciation
techniques for words used in regular sentences.

The Japanese adopted kanji—

Chinese characters—as a base for
their written language as early as
the 1st century AD. Historically
tens of thousands of these
characters were in use but
currently a basic 1,850 or so are
commonly used. Around 880 are
learned by the end of elementary
school. When the Japanese
adopted kanji characters from the
Chinese, they gave these their own
translated “sounds” taken from the
Chinese sounds as well as keeping
their original words for the same
character. They also have another
written “alphabet”--kana--
hiragana (around 56 basic letters
for Japanese words) and katakana
(similar letters but for foreign
words.) Often, these are used for words in which the kanji sounds can not be
easily incorporated, and for endings of words which conjugate, such as verbs
and adjectives, particles, auxiliary verbs, etc. In addition, pronouns, adverbs,
and the names of plants and animals are better written in hiragana. Japanese
written language is a mix of kanji, hiragana, and sometimes katakana. More
complex writing often contains mostly kanji, while easier texts often contain
more hiragana, for instance, for children’s books or those learning the
language.

In this example below, there is a mix of hiragana and kanji, which has
hiragana in small letters above it, as a learning aid.

*image from “Japanese for Today” Gakken publishing 1973

Kanji thus have both a translated sound associated with them AND original
Japanese language words and one or the other may be used in different
contexts. Also, many kanji have the same sound but different meanings. For
example, in my kanji book, I found over 30 different kanji for the sound “ka”
and many for “sai” or “shin”, etc. This is why seeing the pictographic
character is so helpful in instantly recognizing the meaning and context of the
word. Take a look at this example...

It is really fun to see how these characters are combined with each other for
meaning...In the above example, “kindness” comes from the combo of IN [to
be due to…] plus SHIN [heart]….Kindness=to be due to Heart...
In the example below we see that the side symbol (called a radical) is the
symbol for “water”...it goes with KAI—ocean, but also with CHI, lake. If I
look at the word for lake and see the water radical, I know instantly that it has
something to do with water...

Next is the radical for rain...combine this with DAI (or ōkii)-- “big” = Heavy
rain...

What we use in our chanting is the Japanese translation sound of the Chinese
word, for instance: KAN ZE ON NA MU BUTSU YO…
If you look at the insert above, you see the kanji for “big—DAI.” Sometimes
when this comes up in a sentence, it may be read “ōkii”...as in the 2nd insert
 from the study book, “Kore wa ōkii kōjō desu ne....This is a big factory, isn’t
it?”-- but in our chanting...such as our Robe Chant, it would be “DAI sai ge
da pu ku…

Ok, here is a “Japanese Syllabary Chart”--this is helpful as we get into the

verbal language now...

*image from “Japanese for Today” Gakken publishing 1973

The next thing to know about Japanese is that the syllables are “open
syllables” and, in general, always end in a vowel—except for “n (nasal n), q
(symbolizing a doubling of the consonant as in Bernadette’s name below, and
v—symbolizing a prolonged vowel—as in ōkii”...all of the other “letters” in
the alphabet are a combo of a consonant and a vowel, like this:

ka ki ku ke ko… or, ma mi mu me mo…

This is why when English words are translated, they sound the way they do…
For example, “Chris” becomes “Ku-ri-su”…pronounced: Ku-ree-su or,
Florida, becomes “Fu-ro-ri-da!”… “Bernadette”...will become,
“Ba-no-det-to!”

The following will likely be very familiar from all of our chanting.

Basic vowel sounds:

a = ah as in “la”

i = ee as in “see”

u = oo...as in “poo”

e = eh...as in “ferry”

o = oh...as in “slow”
(these vowel sounds are the same as they are in Spanish, fyi)

I know many of you know these already—nothing new—I think what can
confuse us sometimes, in chanting, is if the word is spelled the same as an
English word—for instance IN, or SHIN...and, how about ON and TO

So, lets try a few of these...

kan ze on (own)

na mu butsu

yo butsu u in (een)

yo butsu u en

bup po so en

jo raku ga jo

cho nen kan ze on

bo nen kan ze on

nen nen ju shin (sheen) ki

nen nen fu ri shin…

...and yes, Sesshin is...(ses-sheen)

...sha sono nan to (toe) ji to en gya gya gya ki gya ….

So, more subtle pronunciation occurs when not chanting but as someone is
using regular speech...these are not really needed for our chanting, but I
thought it would be fun to just explore them a bit…

The infamous “R” sound is non-existant in Japanese...I’ve noticed that in

English, we use our lips to form the sound as in “roku”...in Japanese however
that sound is made with the tongue hitting the top of the palate making a
sound more like “l”...a non-distinct “loku”--the start of a tongue twirl similar
to “carro” in spanish…

Many “double” consonants are in the language and I think everyone is

familiar with these from:

“Enmei Jukku Kannon Gyo...”

or… “omoshirokatta desu”

There are long vowels vs short vowels that change the meaning of the word:
Obasan = aunt
Obāsan (oba-a-san) = grandmother

and, many words in which a certain combo makes the first vowel almost
silent, for instance:

sukiyaki is more like ski-yaki (the u becoming very short and almost silent)
soshite is not a distinct so-shi-te, it is more like sosh-te
and desu is more like des (desu is a “copula” like “to be” in English and is
at the end of a sentence, “Watashi wa Dezari desu.”...I am Desiree.)

Of note, “f” is not pronounced with a hard ffff...it is more like an airy f/w
mix: fu as in fuku, again the u would be very quick and quiet, more like fku

Well, there is much more that we could spend time on—accents are very
different and often opposite of in English...for instance in English:
Hiroshima would be Hiroshima… Umiko...is Umiko...just for a little taste.
...well, enough for now! Thank you so much for listening :)